Sesame Street/USO Experience for Military Families Looks at Transition

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, North Dakota–Military families stationed here – 50 miles south of the Canadian border – don’t get many VIP visitors. So when the Sesame Street/USO Experience for Military Families kicked off its 2016 tour at the base, it was a big deal.

“We are thrilled to be on the road to be able to visit all these bases and bring the joy and the fun and the experience of Sesame Street and the USO to these military kids,” said Rebecca Shubart, company manager for the Sesame Street/USO Experience for Military Families.

Over 150 military family members packed the base auditorium to watch Elmo, Grover and Katie, a character exclusively designed for the Sesame Street/USO tour, perform their newest show, “Katie Transitions to Civilian Life.”

“In this show, Katie has found out that her dad and her family are transitioning out of the military,” said Nicole McClendon, tour manager for the Sesame Street/USO Experience for Military Families. “It’s a big change that a lot of military kids are going to be facing,”

As the longest running entertainment tour in USO history, the Sesame Street/USO Experience for Military Families tour, which began in 2008, is designed to help military families deal with unique challenges. The tour offers two different shows – "Katie Transitions to Civilian Life” and “Katie is Moving to a New Base” – for bases to choose from to best address the challenges facing their populations.

“Our tour is special because it’s about military kids and it’s for military kids and we actually get to bring it to military kids,” McClendon said.